Free
by PLLHalebSpoby
Summary: Spencer is stupefied when she receives a cryptic message in braille from Toby, and is even more stumped when she comes across a nonsense message. Later, Toby hears welcoming good news concerning his legal case for the murder of Alison DiLaurentis.
1. Chapter 1

Spencer had found it after she had left his house, tucked into one of her notebooks that she had used for her tutoring session with Toby.

It was a simple, white piece of paper with a braille message, with a personalized message from Toby, simply telling her that she might be right about Jenna.

During the course of their study session, she had confided in him that she thought Jenna might be trying to frame her. She hadn't considered the fact that he might have taken it seriously, but apparently he had.

The braille was obviously a message that Jenna herself had written out. But why? And what did it even mean?

Taking it back to her house, she plopped herself in front of her computer, and began the loud and arduous process of finding out the hidden code.

It wasn't easy.

The girls were over, lounging in different spots in her room. She hadn't gone into specifics about her study date with Toby, though they had all grilled her for details concerning it.

Added to the stress, was Hanna and Aria, who were clearly in some fight or another. She didn't have time to busy herself with that, though, like she normally would have.

"Bad," Spencer read slowly, incredulously as the translated words popped up on her screen. "The message is _bad_?"

"Well," Aria said, looking over at her for the first time. "Maybe he's playing you."

"No," Spencer said, shaking her head. "He wouldn't do that.

"I don't think so, either," Emily said, siding with Spencer. "Not after all that's happened."

Spencer knew it, too.

Toby wouldn't give her the message for nothing. It meant something, and she just had to figure out what it meant.

She found her opportunity the next morning when she made her way over to his house before school. He was outside, working on his motorcycle, about the only thing he could do nowadays.

"I translated message you gave me," she began, "and the whole message is bad. What does that mean? Am I supposed to go out and buy a Michael Jackson album?"

He smiled, something that would have normally infuriated her, but with him, it didn't seem to matter as much. "No, you're reading it wrong."

"What?"

How was that possible. She had searched out the entire website and translated it a thousand different ways.

"You're reading it wrong," he repeated. "Look," he began, glancing nervously back at the house. "Come back on Saturday morning. Jenna will be gone at her flute lesson."

Sighing, she acquiesced. "Okay."

It wasn't what she had hoped for, and the fact that she had read the message wrong, was even more confusing, but she turned around, and walked back to her house, ready to head back to square one.


	2. Chapter 2

The morning after his impromptu study session with Spencer, Toby got the call he had both been dreading and anticipating with equal measure. The call from his attorney that his father had hired when his murder case had begun.

So far he had exceeded all of the criteria needed for release, but with the way the cops worked, he knew that could be going back to jail for any stupid so-called offense.

For once, and miraculously, it was something else entirely. It was good.

He was cleared of all charges.

The crucial blood evidence needed to go to trial with, had been irreversibly corrupted, rendering it unusable, and Toby off the hook.

For now.

As his attorney none so gently reminded him, they could always retry him if any new evidence came to light, but for now he was free.

Getting off the phone, he felt numb as he processed the barrage of new information he had just received. The weight of the world had been lifted off his shoulders, as he looked down at the ankle monitoring device, knowing he could get it off at any time.

Most likely, and to his irritation, Jenna would be the one who would insist on accompanying him to that crucial meeting at the police station.

Since his enforced house arrest, Jenna had been clinging to him like a koala bear, constantly shifting her schedule to be around him, make him do things for her that she most likely could have accomplished with her limited eyesight.

But finally, he was beyond that.

Finally he had obtained the permission possible to remove the clunky thing around his ankle. His joy was so insurmountable that he almost missed seeing Spencer's car across the street, where she usually parked it.

Frowning, wondering if he had missed her during his conversation with the attorney, he began searching through the rooms of the bare house.

Finally, he spotted her.

She was standing stationary in Jenna's room-the one place in the entire house that was off limits to anyone but the ones she willingly invited in.

"You better put that back. Put it back where you got it or she'll know you were in here."

In the absence of her vision, Jenna had found unique ways to utilize the other senses that she still possessed. One of them, being her superhuman sense of suspicion.

"I-I'm sorry," she stammered. "I knocked. The door was open."

"I heard you," he assured her, though in reality, he didn't want to make her feel bad for walking in like that. "But I couldn't answer the door. I was on the phone with my lawyer. The DA is dropping the charges."

It felt surreal saying those words. Like it was happening to someone else, not him.

Her reaction was instantaneous, as were her reflexes as she almost dropped the snow globe she had been holding.

Jumping foreword on instinct, he reached for the object and carefully placed it back on the shelf.

"They're not going to charge you with killing Alison?"

"I didn't get the details, but he said the blood evidence was corrupted and they can't go to trial without it. "

"They're finished with you," she said, a smile creeping across her face.

It was unusual to have anyone be happy for him. Usually all he got was scorn and judgment for one perceived wrongdoing or another.

It was nice.

Unexpected

"Not finished. They can charge me anytime they find new evidence. But for right now, I'm _free_. Once I get this ball and chain off my ankle. I'm waiting for my Dad to take me to the courthouse for that."

"I can drive you," she said.

It beat having to wait around for his father, and sure as hell beat having to endure Jenna as they drove by some taxi driver.

"Okay, sure. That sounds great."

Toby supposed they shouldn't have been as lucky as to escape Jenna entirely. She was waiting for them when they stepped out of the house, her hands firmly plastered around her walking cane.

"Toby? Did you hear the good news? We can get that awful thing off your leg."

"That's okay, I've got a ride."

He could see the subtle way her mouth changed, pressing into a thin line as she turned her head toward the supposed direction of his ride.

"Emily?"

"No, it's me," Spencer said, trading a nervous look with him.

"Spencer. It's really very nice of you, but I'm here now."

It was laughable, the way she assumed she could so easily insert herself into his life when she wanted, as though she held all the chains and he was just her puppet.

"I'm going with Spencer," Toby said, grabbing her hand and walking past Jenna on the way to the car.


End file.
